


October the Tenth

by EvilFuzzy9



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Gen, Gen Work, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-03
Updated: 2016-08-03
Packaged: 2018-07-29 02:58:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7667620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvilFuzzy9/pseuds/EvilFuzzy9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The day of Naruto's birth. A poem.</p>
            </blockquote>





	October the Tenth

In the Land of Fire, the Village of Leaves,  
At a time of year which Summer grieves –  
Autumn the withered, Autumn the cold,  
Autumn when tree-leaves turn orange and gold –  
A leader they had, Hokage the Fourth,  
Young, fair, and bold, of warrior's worth.  
Minato, Minato, Minato brave:  
Minato scion of gale and wave.  
Most cunning, most daring, swifter than sight,  
From here to fro traveled in flashes of light.

A lover had he, hot-tempered yet fair,  
Kushina the Brash with her shining red hair.  
Slender yet stalwart, lovely yet strong,  
Most worthy of maidens in legend or song;  
Soft-spoken, hard-fisted, with eyes of sea-gray,  
As wrathful in battle as gentle in play.

Happy they were, in the peace after war,  
When warriors tired and cried out "No more!"  
Together they came, plighting their troth,  
Declaring their love and suff'ring no sloth.  
A child they sired, a lad yet unborn,  
When their future turned gray, grim, and forlorn.

For evil endures, and plots are unfurled,  
Grand plans to ensnare, ensorcell the world.  
Grudges unfaded, hatred undimmed;  
Red eyes with black motes a-swirling are rimmed.  
In October it came, October the Tenth,  
When birth-pangs began, she cried out for nepenthe.

The child was coming, about to be birthed!  
Minato, Kushina, alight in their mirth,  
Went off in secret with proud, noble midwife,  
To welcome in secret this precious new life.  
Precautions were many, guards most elite,  
Mighty of arm and swift on their feet;  
For more than their son, young and unborn  
Was held in the womb of Kushina that morn.

 _Kyuubi no Youko_ , the great demon fox,  
Wrathful and mighty, on mankind a pox,  
In Kushina was chained since she was a youth,  
The reason she came to the Leaf, in all truth.  
For the Kyuubi was strong, too fell to roam free,  
Too filled up with hatred for man, beast, and tree.

So the Shodaime's wife, Uzumaki-born Mito,  
Had in herself sealed without choice of veto,  
The Fox of Nine-tails, Kyuubi the Great,  
A Beast which knew aught but destruction and hate.  
And of Mito the Wise, Kushina was kin,  
In nature of blood they were all but two twins.

A life offered up, a human made cage,  
Sealing the Fox and its virulent rage.  
But in birthing, the seal, else wrought hard as iron,  
Quivered and weakened, as burned up in fire.  
And this chance the Fox knew, a chance to escape,  
To regain its terror and natural shape.

Far from the Leaf went Kushina in labor,  
In hope to be guarded from chances ill-favored.  
She struggled and wailed in birthing's long pain  
Swearing to never be pregnant again,  
But after long ardor and ferverous strife,  
In joy she beheld her newborn son's life.  
Naruto, the name they had chosen in plan,  
Seemed perfectly fit to this young little man.

But her gladness was brief, this fam'ly star-crossed,  
Ill-fortune came then, and all hope seemed lost.  
A man dark and callous, motives unknown,  
Fell on the guards, swift and alone.  
To Kushina he came, and to Minato,  
Their son stole away, young Naruto.

"If your son you do love, and desire to live,  
Then wisely to me, the Nine-tailed Fox give."  
Those were his words, as he drew out a blade –  
A life for a life, an unwanted trade.  
To tear out the Fox would be Kushina's undoing,  
In folly would sunder her soul, bringing ruin.

But Minato was swift, the fleet Yellow Flash,  
Stole his son back with nary a clash.  
But the stranger was cunning, a trap he had laid:  
Notes writ for blasting, on swaddling cloth laid.  
But Minato perceived it, the cloth cast away,  
With son in his hand, flew safely away.

In a cradle set down, hushed and assured,  
In safety left Minato his newborn son pure.  
Back into battle, to bloodshed and wrath,  
Minato in fury returned on a warpath.  
The thunder god came, a cold flash of light,  
Defending his own, a terrible sight.

The man in the vizard did well not to quail,  
Nor in his removal of Demon Fox fail.  
Alone with Kushina, Minato had left him,  
In saving his son, folly it seemed,  
The greater threat left, the greater risk loose,  
About the Leaf's neck this act drew a noose.

Kushina was dying, the Fox was torn out,  
But not all would end in slaughter and rout.  
Though Fox was contracted, bound to a pact,  
And at the Man's will, the village attacked,  
Yet was there strength, valor, and courage  
Such worthy souls left as to hinder this outrage.

Hiruzen Old, of Clan Sarutobi,  
Hokage the Third, to battle went he.  
Homura, Koharu, lesser and great,  
The foe to defeat, all wrath to abate;  
Yuuhi and Nara, wild Inuzuka,  
Illusion and shadow, sharp fang and claw;  
Yamanaka, Hyuuga, Uchiha proud,  
No foe would be suffered, nor insult allowed;  
Akimichi strong, Uzumaki few,  
To war and to death, ill-boding winds blew.

"The village, defend! Our lives and our loves!  
For child, and graybeard, and least turtledove!  
Attack and attack! Foe, fear, and flame!  
Konoha, Konoha! Free all the same!"  
Aloud did they cry, 'gainst fear their hearts swelled.  
The Leaf was still strong, not yet to be felled.

The battle was joined, the Beast in the village;  
The battle was joined, Minato and stranger.  
Hiraishin, Hiraishin, the Thunder God flies,  
Swifter than light, with fell battlecry.  
Dagger was thrust, a spark and a ring,  
Through flesh as through air, and did not a thing.

A touch of the hand, the world starts to spin,  
All light and all shadow, drawn, warped and thin;  
Escape at the brink, a desperate flight  
Did Yellow Flash save from last, endless night.  
Away from the foe, whose touch held such peril,  
Whose fingers drew flesh, as drew flagon from barrel.

Foe no blade could touch, whose touch boded ill,  
Who vanished and came out from ether at will.  
A phantom, a shadow, a will-of-the-wisp,  
Ephemeral body, the grave's ice-cold grip.  
All at once, whether, or part at a time,  
There had to be reason, p'raps also a rhyme.

Minato was cunning, and light on his feet,  
But this time to win would be no simple feat.  
All of his wit, his resource and daring,  
No lack for effort, nor ounce of it sparing,  
To sortie and clash, blade ringing and jarred,  
Minato did play his final trump card.

Charging ahead, he ran at the foe,  
A knife did cold glint, swiftly to throw,  
Through mask as through air, it flew without mark.  
The masked man did advance, only to hark,  
For Minato evaded his touch yet again,  
And suddenly he felt a back-biting pain.  
For out the knife came, in strategy grand,  
Minato with light, a star in his hand

His foe he did smite, and throw to the ground,  
With great flash of light, and thunderous sound.  
The earth, she did crack, pitted and wracked,  
At Minato's landing, lightning impact;  
Rock and root moaned, with tongues deep and low,  
So heavy, so sharp, was Minato's blow.

The man was defeated, but the battle raged still,  
Unless Kyuubi was sealed, all else would go ill.  
So, weary, despairing, perceiving his fate,  
And the fate of his son, for sorrow too late –  
For naught but Kushina, naught but her kin,  
Could the Fox seal away, themselves lock within –  
Back into safety, his son did retrieve,  
Resolved but dismayed, Minato grieved.

Ritual old, sacrifice dear; all seemed bleak,  
Ill-fated, tragic; but he was not weak.  
The price he knew, he grimly paid,  
His own life in change for son he betrayed  
To a hard life, and lonely, no father or mother,  
Mistrusted and feared. There was no choice other.

The Fox did resist, and try to attack,  
But chains did emerge, strength not yet to lack,  
From Kushina, Kushina, Kushina the Fair,  
Worthy kunoichi of the blood-crimson hair.  
"I can hold it in still," she stubbornly said.  
"I won't see my son used, or his fool father dead."

Minato was stricken, but still he persisted,  
Though his wife disapproved, his plan she resisted.  
"Your strength slips away, Kushina my dear,  
Though I wish 'twere not so, our fate is, I fear,  
To die on this day, and be survived by our son;  
The Fox is still loose, it cannot be won."

"Save by the blood of Uzu clansman young,"  
Kushina did sigh, bones shivered and rung.  
"No other will do, none other can try,  
This I well know, it is no lie.  
But still I resist, still I abhor!  
The thought of my son, a tool as for war."

"Do you not trust me?" Minato asked her.  
"Would you think me faithless, your blessed life's savior?  
Nay, my beloved! He will not be used –  
Not so, at least – or by ill-care abused.  
The village will see, they well know the price:  
For the peace that they love, what we sacrifice."

"Too trusting, my dearest! Naive, you are.  
Fools there are many, and sorrow goes far  
To close people's eyes and make hard their hearts;  
They will not see a hero, they'll not ken his part,  
Our son they will fear, hate, or mistrust –  
Ever the fate of jinchuuriki must."

"Your words do ring true, loath though I admit,  
To think that our people could ever submit  
To prejudice so base, so ignorant at will,  
That they should ignore our son's valor and skill  
For no reason save that he holds a Beast,  
A Fox of Nine-tails, Kyuubi un-least."

"Do you see now, Minato my hero?"  
Kushina asked him, her gaze falling low.  
"We can lay this not upon our son's shoulders  
Not though I am dying, and my blood does run colder.  
I cannot endure, cannot accept, cannot permit,  
You to do this, Minato. Have you abandoned all wit?"

"He is our son, and I know it is cruel,  
But I am Hokage, this village I rule.  
A duty have I o'er that to my kin,  
Though many may say that it seems like a sin.  
The Fox must be sealed, into our son.  
There is no other choice, not even a one."

Kushina was sad, but her eyes burned with fire,  
She was not soft, she would have known her ire.  
"Then you are a fool, and I hate this village!  
To take my son and my life, and all our joy pillage."  
Then her eyes softened, and she looked down at her son,  
And she knew in her heart that the end had begun.  
"...But you I do love, Minato, and trust.  
Do what you need. Do what you must.  
All seems bleak, all seems gray, all evil, ill-fated.  
But may the worth of our deeds be yet for good rated."

In the Land of Fire, the Village of Leaves,  
At a time of year which Summer grieves;  
Autumn the withered, Autumn the cold,  
Autumn when tree-leaves turn orange and gold;  
On October the Tenth, well ere November,  
The Leaf's heroes died, forever remembered,  
Minato the Brave, Kushina the Brash,  
Red Habañero and famed Yellow Flash.


End file.
